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Raise the bar on due diligence

Require transparent suppliers

In order for companies to make sound and responsible business decisions, it is critical they know who they’re doing business with. Anonymous companies (entities that disguise the identities of their owners) raise the cost of doing business, undermine financial stability and make it difficult for companies to drive integrity in their supply and investments. Globally, the lack of ownership transparency is creating financial, reputational, operational and regulatory risks for companies and responsible businesses and investors are taking action to tackle this issue. We want you to join them.

5% GDP

global cost of corruption

3.8 billion

USD in recent fines

10% cost

increase for business

77 countries

are taking action

91% of executives

want to know who owns companies

Business

and Ownership Transparency

NEWS

UPDATE

On January 31, 2018 the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (CFA) introduced unexplained wealth orders (UWOs). This is a new investigative power enabling UK enforcement authorities (such as the Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs; the National Crime Agency; and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO)) to seize and dispose of any property suspected to be obtained using illicit wealth.

European Union finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to remove eight jurisdictions, including much-criticised Panama, from the bloc’s blacklist of tax havens, one month after the list was set up.
The decision prompted an outcry from lawmakers and activists.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) highlighted cyber security, and banks’ relationship with financial technology companies, and anti-money laundering, as key concerns for the federal banking system in its Semiannual Risk Perspective for Fall 2017.

European Union officials have proposed removing eight jurisdictions from the blacklist of tax havens the bloc adopted in December, in what critics may see as a blow to its campaign against tax avoidance.

The former chairman of a Kazakh bank went to considerable lengths to conceal his beneficial ownership of an offshore company, including the use of verbal agreements, a London High Court judgment has shown.

The French National Financial Prosecutor has just published its agreement with HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) detailing an investigation that followed allegations of money laundering and tax evasion. The bank has made a 300 million euros public interest court settlement, backed by HSBC Holdings.

As the senior Bank Secrecy Act compliance official with Wall Street’s self-regulatory organization prepares to depart for the private sector, some industry experts are wondering who is capable of replacing her.

Free-trade zones (FTZs) pose an inherent money laundering risk but the region in which they are located also affects their risk weighting. That was the central theme of a panel discussion on combating trade-based money laundering (TBML) in free zones during a recent Middle East anti-money laundering event in Dubai.

Money laundering reporting officers will be reviewing the Paradise Papers to check their firms’ exposure to beneficial ownership concerns, transfer pricing and profit alleviation to offshore jurisdictions. The revelations seem unlikely to expose any directors to charges under the Corporations Act 2001, however, if they have relied upon expert advice.

The Canadian government has introduced a new regulatory regime that will allow it to impose financial sanctions on individuals linked to human rights abuses and corruption: the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act.